x INTRODUCTION. 
evident from the information he collected at Sansanding, 
which confirmed the hypothesis of the southern direction 
of the Niger. “I have hired a guide (he says) to go with 
me to Kashna; he is one of the greatest travellers in this 
part of Africa: he says that the Niger, after it passes 
Kashna, runs directly to the right hand, or to the south; he 
had never heard of any person who had seen its termination ; 
he was sure it did not end near Kashna or Bornou, having 
” and to 
Lord Camden he says, ‘* he was more and more inclined 
to think that it can end no where but in the sea.” 
resided for some time in both these kingdoms ; 
No wonder then that Park, having thus ascertained from 
‘one of the greatest travellers in that part of Africa,” 
the southerly course of the Niger, should be sanguine of 
proving the validity of Mr. Maxwell’s hypothesis, and of 
reaching the West Indies from the mouth of the Congo. 
It was not, however, his fate to establish the truth or falsity 
of this proposition; the problem still remains undeter- 
mined ; and the termination of the Niger and the source 
of the Congo, are alike unknown. The probability of their 
identity, however, appeared to gain ground, not merely 
because one great river took a southerly direction, and had 
no known termination, and another came from the north- 
ward, nobody knew from whence; but the more the magni- 
tude and character of the latter river was investigated, and 
its circumstances weighed and compared with those effects 
which might be expected to happen from natural causes, the 
greater colour was given to the supposition of their iden- 
tity. It is only surprising that a river of that magnitude 
and description which belong to the Congo, should not, 
long before now, have claimed a more particular attention. 
